Learn the basics of Math Talk with this informative article focusing on specific suggestions for incorporating this technique into any classroom discussion. The author outlines five steps for getting started one step at a time featuring photos and videos of math talk in a classroom setting. This article also includes several colorful posters and charts available in PDF format for quick printing.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark and save this site as a resource when planning math instruction. Math Talk techniques correlate perfectly to Common Core Standards, so this article is an excellent tool for use when preparing lessons based on standards. Create videos of math conversations and share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Be sure to share a link to videos on your classroom website for parents to view methods for fostering math conversations. Share this article with your peers and collaborate as you incorporate Math Talks into your classrooms.

Make to Learn offers an online space for designing, discussing, and learning about digital fabrication (using a digital design to create a physical object). Watch the short intro video for a succinct explanation for what exactly digital fabrication is. Choose from different tabs to explore the different components of the site: Discuss, Learn, Tools, and Design. Although the site only has a few lessons and resources, it provides a starting point for learning about digital fabrication. Some of the lesson videos are on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Share a link to the site for students interested in design and computers. If your school has an after-hours computer club, share this site with their leader as a resource for ideas. You may be interested in writing a grant to buy any equipment needed for digital formatting. See GetEdFunding, reviewed here.

Pixar and Khan Academy team up to offer an interesting series of learning tutorials demonstrating math, science, and engineering concepts faced by animators as part of the animated film-making process. Examples include the use of digital pixel painting using algebra and creating blades of grass in Brave with parabolic arcs. View a short video explanation of the program, then choose from the learner's or educator's guides for specific details on each activity. If your district blocks YouTube, then the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

This site is excellent for enrichment. Include it on your class webpage for students to access both in and out of class. Share the opening video for lessons, then allow students to explore and complete the videos at their own pace. Use this site for enrichment with your gifted students or students interested in art and filmmaking. Challenge students to use concepts presented in the Pixar in a Box tutorials to create their own animated films.

Ignite offers a tool to create unique multimedia projects using layers and incorporating collaboration. Start by completing the simple sign up process (email required). Then jump right in and begin making your first multimedia project. With the tools, you can include text, images, and video through the web service. The iPad app will allow you to add audio. The collaboration feature allows for more than one user to work on a presentation at a time. Once the finished product is ready for viewing, easily share with the URL. The presentation tool is very simple and easy to use.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to present new ideas to students via projector or interactive whiteboard. In a flipped classroom, share the URL and have students view the presentation on their own. Include questions on the slides to encourage active participation while viewing. Students can use this tool to work collaboratively on a slideshow to demonstrate knowledge and present material. Discuss what working collaboratively includes before beginning the project. Have students take their own pictures to include in their Ignite presentation to enhance the learning experience.

Sembly is an online classroom management tool. Sign up as a teacher or student to begin. The teacher version allows you to create and add classes. After adding students, they receive a class code allowing them to enter the class. Create assignments with deadlines for students from your dashboard. The assignment option also provides the opportunity for collaboration and interaction between students and teachers. Upload files from your computer, Google Drive, DropBox, and Evernote to add to assignments or share with your class. Sembly is available online and for mobile devices with apps available for all operating systems.

In the Classroom

Use Sembly to manage and organize any classroom. Maintain a classroom calendar so students can easily find due dates and deadlines for homework and projects. Reminder notices will be automatically generated. Share information with parents to keep them up to date. Use the discussion feature as a resource for keeping students involved over long holidays or on a snow day. Sembly is an interactive and collaborative program. Challenge literature circles to complete write ups, discussions, and final presentations about the book they read using Sembly. Lab partners can present their findings, and math students can demonstrate how they solved a problem.

Discover a powerful, adaptive, personalized learning program in Knewton. Knewton delivers video or written content to students in math, science, or English and then asks multiple-choice questions. The next selections are based on the student's responses and those of similar students. Knewton figures out what each student knows and how each student learns best. So the more the student uses Knewton, the more Knewton learns about the right speed and sequencing to serve up the content. The material is for grades 6 - 12 in Math, grades 4 - 6 in English Language Arts, grades 9 - 11 in Biology, and soon Knewton will have materials for History. At the time of this review, the FAQ also stated that you will soon be able to upload your own content. Sign up is with email or a Gmail account and easy for both students and teachers. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Introduce Knewton on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can sign up using the URL for your Knewton class, or by you putting in either their email, Knewton username, or account information. There is a very detailed FAQ section where you can learn all about the teacher dashboard and monitoring student progress. You could use this tool as a daily bell ringer assignment or at a center. You could also assign this for homework. Once students finish the selection, the tool will present another to work on right away. You may want to specify how many selections you want the students to complete on Knewton in each class session. Knewton will allow you to continue in the same area the next time you sign in. Working on these assignments through the year will improve your students' skills and literacy in Math, English, and Biology. Remember, History will be added soon. Post the link to Knewton on your class web page for students to use at home.

Sharpen your math computational skills with Mathsspin Deluxe. Mathsspin Deluxe starts out deceptively easy; however, problems become more difficult as you move up through the levels. Nine different levels include basic addition and subtraction and continue to fractions, operations, powers, and more.This site includes advertising.

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Share Mathsspin Deluxe with your class on your interactive whiteboard or projector, then allow them to play on individual classroom computers. Challenge students to track scores and share individual high scores on a class bulletin board or have students keep a log of scores in math journals.

NISE is the online home of a community of scientists and other partners with an interest in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. The site includes programs and activities for ages four through adult. Use filters on the activities section to choose age level, topics, and product category. Be sure to check out the over 120 lesson plans available through NISE and the free Professional Development for teachers and scientists.

In the Classroom

Bookmark NISE as a resource for finding STEM lesson plans and activities. Some of the lesson plans include theater plays and scripts, take advantage of these to incorporate the arts into your STEM lessons making them STEAM. Share NISE activities with students for use with math and science fair projects. Be sure to include a link to activities on your class web page for parent use at home. Share the Professional Development section with your administrator and fellow teachers.

Focus on the Twitter chats you want to follow easily and in real-time with tchat. Sign up for tchat through your Twitter account. Input the hashtag you wish to follow and all other tweets will be filtered out. tchat opens in a new tab; that means you can still see other Tweets on your Twitter account tab at the same time you are following a chat. Reply right from tchat without leaving the page; send and continue reading the conversation. The menu bar at the top allows pause and play, it stops refreshing, allowing you to find what you are looking for and to reply or retweet the information without losing it, and then resumes when you click play. You can also block retweets. Either sign in to stop the pop-up when you want to respond, or use tchat without signing in to have the pop-up and see all of the chat on the side. Each reply will automatically include the hashtag.

In the Classroom

Sometimes it's hard to stay focused on a group Twitter chat. Take advantage of this tool to avoid distractions and communicate only with the members of the chat session. It's a relief to use this tool and be able to take your time commenting back and forth and not have to hunt through countless other Tweets to find your group and that one comment where you want to reply. tchat is the perfect tool to use with Twitter in the classroom so students will stay focused on your topic. If your class is following a scientist, engineer, politician, or any other professional, invite them to a chat to converse with your students and have the students stay focused. If you are taking an online class and one of the requirements is to participate in a Twitter chat, this tool is perfect to help you meet your goal.

Use tchat on laptops during a video or student presentations. Pose questions for all to answer/discuss using an assigned hashtag. Ask students to pose their own "I wonder if..." questions as they watch and listen. Keep every student engaged and THINKING as an active listener. The first time you use tchat, you will want to establish some etiquette and accountability rules, such as respectful language and constructive criticism. Assign students to watch a news program or political show and have a chat during the broadcast. Revisit the chat on a projector in class the next day or post the chat transcript to a class blog or wiki and have students respond further in blog posts or on the wiki discussion tab. The advantage of backchannel chat is that every student has a voice, no matter how shy.

Use tchat to collaborate with other classrooms or teachers at a distance. Use a whole class Twitter account to contribute to a regular chat. Professionally, teachers can join subject or grade level specific Tweet chats that happen in real time. See the Twitter Chat Schedule, reviewed here or Educational hashtags listings here to find real-time groups you can join using tchat.

Organize your brain and your life with Workflowy. This tool allows you to take notes, make lists and outlines, and use hashtags to create groups of items. Import lists from other documents directly into Workflowy. Share lists with others using the share button, use options to allow them to edit if desired. Quickly create an account using email and a password to begin. Once you create an account, be sure to take advantage of the many tutorial videos demonstrating Workflowy's features. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Any student would appreciate having an online time management account, but learning support students and disorganized gifted students need one. You may want to model using Workflowy to help middle and high school students learn better personal organization. Make a demo account for a mythical student and organize his/her Workflowy together so students can see how it works. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector the first week of school to help students set up their own accounts. Parents may also appreciate learning about this site. Use this site professionally to keep yourself organized!

Develop mind maps, concept maps and a variety of charts with this powerful, easy to use tool. Register with an email to begin. Watch several very comprehensive tutorial videos and get started by downloading XMind. Creation is easy! Simply double click Central Topic and add the topic name. Click tab to add main topics, click tab again to add subtopics. Xmind has many features to add organization to your mind map: Drag and drop arrows to organize, colored boundaries, add images and websites (search the web from within XMind), add Audio Notes, background or wallpaper, and much more. Share your map via PowerPoint, Excel, Evernote, PDF, PNG, JPEG, and several other universal formats. If your district blocks YouTube, the tutorial videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

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To demonstrate this tool, have your class create organizers together, such as in a brainstorming session on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Assign students to "map" out a chapter or story. Assign groups to create study guides using this tool. Use this tool for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Use this to create family trees or food pyramids in family and consumer science. Have students collaborate (online) to create group mind maps or review charts before tests on a given subject. Have students organize any concepts you study. They can color code concepts to show what they understand, wonder, and question. Have students map out a story, plot line, or plan for the future. Students can also map out a step-by-step process (such as a life cycle or how to solve an equation).

Use this clever and simple tool to create conversations (or presentations) that look like text messages. Use the icons on the bottom to get started. Email is not required. Clicking either speech bubble will begin the text message, and click the other one to reply. Save the presentation with a password. Share via embed or QR code or URL.

In the Classroom

Engage students with what they know, text messaging! Inform students you will be creating a text conversation between two historical figures, fictional characters, scientists - anything from something the class is reading. On the whiteboard or with a projector display the SMS Generator. Show students how to use it by having them create the conversation. The text is not limited, but keep it reasonable. Besides using SMS Generator for presentations, it could be used to teach or refine social skills, practice writing in a new language, or explaining a math or science concept to a peer.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from February 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Gamification is an innovative way to transform classrooms. Learn how to maximize the students' learning potential by using game design and game elements in the classroom. Explore innovative resources and strategies to foster student engagement with gamification methods. This session is appropriate for teachers at Intermediate technology levels.

In the Classroom

Engage your students and inspire your lessons by applying game principles and elements to non-game activities. These activities can be high-tech or low-tech. It is not about the tool as much as it is about the emphasis on game-like mechanics. Start small and become comfortable with the terminology and process. Choose some aspect of your classroom practice to gamify. You might choose to gamify components of professional development, classroom management, centers, entrance/exit slips, activities, or even whole units. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

Discover a comic musical review of the history of calculus and its concepts at this entertaining site. Although the site is a launch pad for a play of the same name, it includes songs and videos perfect for reinforcing difficult concepts. Choose Music to listen to tunes such as Log: A Rhythm, Conic Sections, and Elliptically. Select the video link to view portions of the play with titles including Its Time to Change Your Base and Unit Circle Trigonometry. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Display videos and listen to musical tunes together on an interactive whiteboard (or with a projector) to engage and interest students. Use videos as a model and challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos on math concepts and share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Have students make a mash-up using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge Tools, reviewed here, to demonstrate Calculus concepts.

Code Avengers offers free introductory courses for learning computer coding. Teachers receive access to all lessons; students have access to introductory lessons in HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and Python 3. Introductory courses run about one hour in length and include video instructions along with opportunities for practice of tasks. Participate in lessons without registration. Registration does allow you to save work and return to the stopping point at any time. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Although only the introductory lessons are free, they provide excellent tutorials for beginners. Create a link on classroom computers for students to learn at their own pace and develop an interest in pursuing further coding instruction. If you are looking for more ways to use coding in the classroom, check out TeachersFirst's Coding in the Classroom page. Make coding part of science inquiry or math logic in any classroom. Include it as part of the scientific method or discussions about careers in science. You may even want to portray coding as just another "world language" in today's world.

Genius allows you to "Annotate the World." Begin with the music portion of the site to view lyrics and crowdsourced knowledge for thousands of songs. In addition to music, Genius also offers annotations for literature, news, sports, TV shows, and movies. Search any section to find specific content or browse through the latest offerings. Install the Chrome extension to use Genius's Web Annotator and add your own notes to any web page or put genius.it in front of any URL to annotate and read other user's notes on any web page. If your district blocks YouTube, some portions may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube. Important: Content is not moderated, be sure to PREVIEW and check for inappropriate content before using with students.

In the Classroom

After creating an account, type Teacher's Guide in the search box to find the link for a very complete guide. The guide has information for using Genius in the classroom and creating accounts. Use the information found with literature selections to build Common Core skills analyzing informational texts. Use the site to post and share discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles. Find a relevant article to your subject. Highlight the part that you want students to read. For younger students, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids. Attach a note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as an outside assignment.

Find a very simple, but very useful file for asking questions in (mathematics) classes. Even though these are labeled for math, they are open-ended questions that will work well for any subject. The one page PDF file provides questions to help students rely on themselves to provide answers, solve problems, and connect (mathematical) ideas.

In the Classroom

Don't skip over this one if you teach math! These questions are good to use in many discussions on many topics. Print this file and include it with all (math) lesson plans. Take one section per month and focus on using those questions with students. Share with your peers as part of your professional discussions in questioning techniques. Include this print out with your Meet the Teacher activities to help parents understand how they can use questions to help students understand math.

Math = Love is a blog by a high school math teacher specializing in Algebra with a goal of making math fun for all students. Frequent posts detail specific lessons and student work along the way. Most posts include a link to download the lesson file. Choose the Free Downloads tab to find a large assortment of downloadable files for posters, bulletin boards, and forms for classroom use. Find specific topics by clicking on the tags on the right side of the page or use the search bar to explore the entire blog.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Take advantage of the many free lessons and downloads on this site. Be sure to sign up to receive email notifications of new blog entries or follow her on Pinterest. Bookmark and save this site for use throughout the year. Have students create blogs discussing math concepts using Throwww, reviewed here. Throwww allows you to create "quick and easy" blogs to be used one time only. A unique URL is provided, and this tool is as easy as using a basic Word program! Be sure to share Math=Love with your department and especially a new teacher.

PBS Kids Lab offers access to the newest and most up to date games, shows, and information on PBS KIDS, specifically for math and reading skills. Choose from the many activities in the Lab Menu such as games, collections, and videos. Educator Resources include classroom and out of school activities to accompany site resources.

In the Classroom

Take advantage of the math activity calendar located on the site, including quick math activities for every day of the year. Create a link to learning games and activities on classroom computers. Post a link on your class website for use at home. Share information on the site with parents to assist them in helping their child with math and reading skills. Be sure to share the PBS Parents Play & Learn app that provides over a dozen learning games for parents to play with their kids, best of all, it is available in English and Spanish!

Explore and practice STEM concepts by designing virtual roller coasters with Coaster Crafter. Create and build within the three main areas of the activity: Design Challenges, Coaster Challenges, and a Free Play area. The challenges begin in a structured manner, and then, as players build skills, challenges become more open-ended. Be sure to click the For Teachers link towards the bottom of the home page for ideas on using Coaster Crafter in the classroom and alignment to standards.

In the Classroom

Use this activity as an introduction to a kinetic and potential energy unit. Students can work individually or in groups to identify the best way to build a roller coaster. Exchange the best ideas to determine the changes in potential and kinetic energy necessary for a successful roller coaster. Analyze various roller coasters that exist and use the data concerning the height and specifics of the track as well as the speed and weight of the train to determine the kinetic and potential energy of the roller coaster. Identify the specific information that makes one roller coaster more exciting than others. Enter information on a blog or wiki post to explain the physics of roller coasters.